Cardiovascular diseases as a reservoir for latent deaths from drug addiction (exemplified by Moscow)

Abstract The life expectancy gap between Russia and post-industrial countries is mainly due to mortality from diseases of the circulatory system (DCS), primarily in working ages, substantiating the need for a program to reduce cardiovascular mortality, currently implemented in Russia. In general, this program has resulted in a multiple reduction in cardiovascular mortality in Russia, however, in 2015-2017, Moscow turned out to be the absolute outsider among the Russian regions in DCS mortality among males of young and middle working ages and a contrastive outsider among females: in ages 15-29 mortality increased 4.4-fold among males and 3-fold among females; in ages 30-44 - 2.1-fold and 2.0-fold, respectively. The purpose of the study is to identify causes of the abnormal increase in mortality in Moscow in 2015-2017. The study shows that, first, the abnormal dynamics were due to cardiomyopathy, unspecified (CU) (I42. 9): the CU mortality in ages 15-44 increased 20-fold in males and 10-fold in females; in ages 45-59 - 7-fold and 8-fold, respectively, resulting in the highest ever CU mortality in Russia. Second, the CU deaths were usually sudden, not predated by a long-term treatment: admissions one month prior to death were registered in about 1% of cases in both sexes. Third, similar processes with the same reference point (2015) have been reported for drug poisoning, the rates of increase are comparable: about 10-fold in ages 15-29, 13 and 29-fold in ages 30-44 and 7.5 and...
Source: The European Journal of Public Health - Category: General Medicine Source Type: research